Unknown Love
by Taylor Williamson
Summary: Everyone knows that Lily and James are in love with each other, except for Lily and James that is. So their friends decide that they need a little help to realize it.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **I first uploaded this to Wattpad, but I also really like this site so I thought that I would upload it here too. It's my first story, sorry if it's awful.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

 ***S** **irius' POV***

It started out like any other Monday. I went down to the Great Hall for breakfast to find Lily Evans and her best friend, Marlene McKinnon, sitting with Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail. This had become a regular occurrence since about half way through our sixth year, when James had finally stopped obsessing over Lily and quit being such a prat, and Lily had decided that he wasn't all that bad. Since then, they had actually become quite good friends, and we had all begun hanging out together. And although James claimed that he was over her, basically everyone but Lily seemed to be able to see that that was about as far from the truth as you could get. Although, I wasn't completely certain of how Lily felt about James.

"What have we got this morning after Charms again?" I asked as I sat down.

"Double Potions." Replied Marlene.

"You know, you're going to have to learn the timetable eventually." Lily told me with a pointed look.

"Oh give me a break, Evans, we're barely two weeks in." I shot back.

"Just saying." Lily sing-songed in response as she made to get up. "Come on, or we'll be late."

We all made our way to Charms, which moved by quite slowly. We were learning about more complex healing charms today, a topic for which I carried little to no interest for, so I didn't really pay much attention for most of the lesson. Soon the bell rang and we had to head off to Double Potions.

"Ah, good morning class," greeted Professor Slughorn, "this morning we will be brewing Amortient, a much milder form of Amortentia. You see, Amortient will merely make you act as though you are in love with whomever you happen to look at first after drinking it. It generally isn't very dangerous, as one sip will only last for about twenty four hours. Also, it usually doesn't create the obsession that Amortentia does, as well as being much simpler to concoct, which is why we will be brewing it now, before Amortentia, which will be next class. When you are finished, if brewed properly, it should have turned a lovely, sky blue color, as well as the steam rising in spirals similar to Amortentia. Amortient also emits the same smell as Amortentia, different for each person, according to what attracts them. Now, please turn to page 28 of your books, you have until the end of the lesson."

We all began reading the instructions, and talking with our table mates, mine being Marlene. We had gotten much closer since James and Lily had become friends, even working at the same table in Potions, next to James and Lily's.

"Do you think they'll ever do something about it?" Marlene asked me, shaking her head at James and Lily.

"Who?"

"The Irish about Scotland beating them in the Quidditch World Cup. " She deadpanned, the sarcasm practically dripping off of her words. "James and Lily about their feelings, you idiot!"

"Wait, so Lily definitely fancies James, then?"

She looked at me as if I had just told her that the sky is blue and snow is white.

"You know, sometimes I think that you just say stupid things on purpose to be ironic, and then you go and say something like that." She said.

"Hey, I say plenty of smart things!" I tried to defend myself.

"Clearly."

" _Anyways,_ back to James and Lily. She really does fancy him?" I asked, choosing to ignore the previous jabs at my intelligence.

"Of course, can't you tell?" She responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I know James fancies Lily because I know James. But how do you know that they fancy each other?" I asked her, genuinely curious how she could read both of them so well.

"How can you not? James looks at Lily like she's the greatest thing since the invention of a broom, and Lily looks at James like she wants nothing more than him, period, end of story. Not to mention they spend at least three quarters of their time together, between lessons, meals, Head duties, plus all the time they spend together when they sneak off to the library or somewhere to hang out or do homework or whatever they claim to be doing. An then there's the fact that they never shut up about the other on any of the rare occasions when they are apart. Plus, have you seen either of them so much as _look_ at anyone else since they've become friends, as well as how no one else is going after either of them since everyone knows that it's only a matter of time before they get together, especially since it's really only a case of when one will pluck up the courage to kiss the other. Really, you have to wonder how in the world you DIDN'T know, as opposed to how I did." She explained, stirring her potion as directed. "In fact, I bet you that they even smell each other in their potions."

I wondered to myself how in the world I had been so clueless, and how much thought Marlene had put into her theory. I mean, honestly, was I really the only one who couldn't see it (Apart from James and Lily, of course).

"Well, when you put it like _that,_ " I conceded, "still, not too much _concret_ e proof."

"Oh I'm sorry, what more could you possibly need?!"

"I don't know! Why don't you just slip them some Amortient!" I joked as I added the final ingredients to my potion.

Now, I had always gotten along with Marlene fairly well. But I had never truly realized how truly calculating she could really be. Until then, of course.

She got a look on her face. I couldn't quite explain it, but it had determination, mischief, and pure deviousness written all over it. And what made it all the more worse is that we had both just made it to the last step of our potion.

Now, I am normally all for pranks. I mean, I practically lived for them. But this, to me, would be crossing a line.

"Marlene, no. OK, this is not like giving them something that will make their ears turn green or make them sound like they drank a gallon of helium. These are James and Lily's feelings, which really, REALLY should not be messed with right now, if they are trying to figure out exactly how they feel about each other." I tried to talk her out of what I was almost certain that she was planning.

"Sirius, will you relax, it's not like I'm giving them Amortentia, Amortient will only make them _ac_ t like they're in love with each other for a day. Anyways, if I'm right, then they may not even react." She attempted to persuade me.

"And if they do?"

"It's Friday, they have the whole weekend to get over it." She replied.

"I don't think that this is something that just a weekend can fix. A decade, maybe, but definitely not a weekend." I tried again to convince her, although I knew that it was too late. She was already sneaking a vile of her potion into her bag, before handing another into Slughorn, who promptly vanished the rest of her potion.

"Don't take part in it, fine. But don't tell anyone either." She told me, a murderous look in her eyes.

"I don't know if I'll tell anyone." I replied, trying to make her believe that I wasn't scared of her, when in reality, I was about ninety eight percent sure that she would put me in the hospital wing if I so much as thought of saying anything to anyone about her little plan.

"Honestly, I'm simply proving a point." She sighed, clearly beginning to get bored with this conversation. "We all know that they're already practically dating, I mean they spend nearly every waking moment with each other."

"Are we sure that they're not just sneaking off to shack up in some broom closet when they're supposedly making rounds?" I joked.

"Honestly, I've thought about it."

"Oh for the love of-" The bell cut me off.

"Time for lunch." Marlene said brightly.

"Oh boy."

*Remus' POV*

I was already chatting with Peter about that morning's lessons while eating our lunch at the Gryffindor table when Marlene and Sirius came up, arguing about something.

" You can't do this Marlene, Lily and James will kill you when they find out, not to mention it's really, really wrong. And that's coming from me, the guy that hid McGonagall's glasses in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom last year." Sirius appeared to be trying to convince Marlene of something, though I wasn't sure of what.

" _If_ they find out, OK, _if_ _,_ which they won't, so will you relax already, it'll wear off, and it's not like anyone's getting hurt." Marlene seemed a bit exasperated with Sirius, like she'd been saying the same thing over and over again.

"Maybe not physically, but as for their emotions and mentality, well..." Sirius fired back.

"Why will Lily and James kill you and what'll wear off?" I asked, curious as to what they were rowing about.

Marlene and Sirius looked at each other, then back at Peter and I, then back at each other, before Marlene sighed and made a gesture that seemed to be meant to say, _Oh, go_ _ahead._

"Marlene swiped some of her Amortient when Slughorn wasn't looking, and is now planning to drug Lily and James with it. Now will you please tell her that she's mad so we can all just move on with our lives?" Sirius explained.

"I agree with Sirius, I think you could get into way too much trouble, assuming you survive if Lily finds out." Peter agreed with him.

"Thank you Peter, but you know that you forgot James." Sirius replied.

"Right, like James will have even figured out what's going on before Lily has sent Marlene's corpse to go and live with the giant squid." Peter scoffed.

"Erm, well thank you for that very, um, _graphi_ c interpretation of the situation Wormtail, although I do believe we have yet to hear Moony's thoughts on this particular matter." Sirius said, turning to me.

I took a moment to ponder the situation for a moment, before letting a wide grin spread across my face. "I think it's bloody brilliant!" I exclaimed. Marlene beamed at me, and before Sirius could protest, as he seemed poised to do at any second, I quickly told her, "Quickly now, put it into their pumpkin juice, they're headed this way."

Marlene didn't need to be told twice. She emptied half a vile of a sky blue liquid I was assuming was the potion she had stolen (Kept? I'm not sure, considering it was, in fact, her potion.) into each of their cups just as they were walking towards us.

"Merlin, you really _ar_ e moony." Sirius muttered to me under his breath as Lily and James sat down.

Lily and James greeted us, and before Sirius or Peter could stop them, they each drank their pumpkin juice while conversing with each other about the Transfiguration homework, as though nothing had happened, while Sirius and Peter gawked at them, and Marlene and I just shared a knowing look. I could definitely see what Marlene was talking about. Maybe it was just that we had gotten used to it, or that I was just now truly paying attention, but the way Lily was giggling at James' stupid jokes, or how James was looking at Lily, I could just see it so much more clearly now. You could see it in their eyes how in love they were, it was almost nauseating.

Lily noticed the looks we were giving them first. As if she felt our gazes, she turned to us. "What?" She asked us, confused.

Sirius and Peter continued to stare at the two of them in disbelief, and Marlene and I just burst into laughter. "Nothing. Nothing at all." I managed to choke out.

"You're all mad, you know." James said, shaking his head at us, before he and Lily went back to their conversation.

Once we were all finished with lunch, we headed back to the common room for our free period before Transfiguration. Lily and James went off in a different direction, saying something about having some meeting with McGonagall about their Head duties, or something like that.

Finally, Marlene spoke once we were all sitting on the overstuffed couches and chairs around the fire in the common room, trying to avoid the mountain of homework we all had, despite only being back a couple of weeks. Once we were all settled, she turned to Sirius and said quite triumphantly, "I told you so."

"No, the potion must not have been mixed properly. Nothing changed." He replied, quite obviously confused, whether or not he was willing to admit it.

Marlene and I both snickered, while Peter and Sirius just looked confused. "Slughorn told me that I did the potion perfectly when I handed it in, that it was quite possibly my best work yet." Marlene told him. I vaguely wondered if she put so much effort into her Amortient purely so that she could properly execute this little 'experiment'.

"But you heard Padfoot, nothing changed." Peter chimed in.

Marlene turned to me. "They still don't get it." She smiled, while shaking her head, the cheerful tinkling of a laugh lacing her voice.

"Get what? Nothing changed." Sirius repeated.

I grinned back at her, and turned to Padfoot and Wormtail to explain it to them. "You're both right," I told them, and as I said it, I saw a look of realization dawn on their faces, "but you see, that's just it. They both drank a perfectly brewed potion that was meant to make them act as though they were in love with each other, and _nothing changed."_

 **So that's the first chapter of my first story. Hope you liked it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**So I have decided to continue this, even though no one will probably read it, and it's been like, forever since I first posted it. I also have this on Wattpad if you prefer that. Anyways, on with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything, JK Rowling does.**

 ***Lily POV***

James and I were walking down the corridor to Professor McGonagall's office after lunch, talking about what had just happened while we ate.

"That was weird, right? It wasn't just me?" He asked me, clearly just as confused by our friends antics as I was.

"Definitely. I mean, Sirius and Peter looked as confused as when we were learning vanishing spells, and Marlene and Remus were acting as though Peeves had just dumped a bucket of ice water on Snape's head." James laughed at my response. I liked it when I made him laugh. He makes me laugh a lot too, but that's just how he is. I feel like if I can make him laugh, I'm making him happier, which is nice, especially with the war going on and everything. I mean, it feels good to make anyone laugh and be happy, but it just feels better when I make him laugh. I don't know why, I can't explain it, I just know that it's a good feeling. "You don't think they put something in our food, do you?"

" 'Course not. I mean clearly we haven't been affected by anything, so even if they did, it's not like it worked." He answered.

"True."

"So did McGonagall say why she wanted to meet with us?" James asked me.

"No, she just told me that we needed to come to her office after lunch. Can't be anything bad, right? I mean, we've only been at this for a couple of weeks, what could we have screwed up, other than the patrol timetables, though she said that those were fine, and the first years seem to be getting on fine, unless we just haven't been paying enough attention, or what if-"

"Lily, relax. She probably just wants to make sure that we're comfortable with everything that we're doing, and aren't having any issues." James cut me off, turning me towards him and putting his hands on my shoulders, calming me almost instantly, both with the action and the words. Although I got a slight fluttering in my stomach when he did that, or any time he touched me, or tried (and ninety nine times out of a hundred, succeeded in) calming me down. I had honestly just gotten used to just trying to ignore it, though it was hard, and it felt so good every time. It was weird to think that a year ago, I couldn't stand him, and now...

"Lils? Earth to Lily?" I snapped out of my trance.

"Huh? Yeah, you're probably right. Let's go." I quickly answered, trying to cover up what I had just been thinking about. Though I doubt that he knew. I hope. Besides, at this point, we were almost at McGonagall's office anyways.

"Are you sure you're OK? You seemed really out of it." He seemed genuinely worried about me, though I was probably just imagining things.

"Totally." I assured him, knocking on the door to McGonagall's office.

"Come in." Her voice called from inside. She didn't sound angry. I think.

"Ah, Mr Potter, Miss Evans, please have a seat. Biscuit?" She asked pleasantly, a little too pleasantly...

James and I both accepted a biscuit, before I just couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Have we done something wrong?" I burst out, and I heard James choke on his biscuit beside me, probably out of both shock and amusement.

"Of course not, Miss Evans," she smiled at us, "I was actually wondering if you and Mr Potter here would plan some kind of a Halloween activity this year, just to try something new for a change. We've been doing the same old feast for years, and the Headmaster and I agree that it's high time we shake things up a bit, to see how it goes."

"That's it?" I asked, somewhat relieved.

"That's it."

James and I looked at each other, and we almost read the other's mind with a single glance.

"We'd love to." James conceded, and I nodded to confirm.

"Wonderful. Just let me or Professor Dumbledore know what you've come up with by the end of next week, and we'll go from there." She told us.

"OK, great. Thanks, Professor." James thanked her as we left.

I breathed a small sigh of relief. We weren't in trouble! It makes me sound like a total goodie two shoes, I know, but the thought of getting in trouble, especially as head girl, really kind of terrified me.

"So any ideas?" I asked him, because I had nothing.

"Not a clue. You?"

I shook my head.

"Well, we could always just ask the others when we get back. Merlin knows they all have opinions on everything." He laughed a bit at the joke, and so did I.

"True. Very, very true."

 ***Marlene POV***

"So you definitely know _for sur_ e that Lily likes James?" Sirius asked me for what felt like the hundredth time.

"For the last time, yes. Any other stupid questions?" I answered, growing bored with the circles the conversation was going in.

"Just one. How?" He answered, curiosity written all over his face.

"The way she looks at him," I said, not missing a beat. "The way she acts around him, the way she's acted since he's been in her life, _reall_ y been in her life, as in since they've become friends. Honestly, the real question here is how you didn't know."

"I knew how James felt about Lily, because I know James. I mean, the guy never shut up about her and now that they're friends, he won't shut up _to_ her." Sirius returned.

"True." Remus added.

"Yeah." Peter voiced.

"OK, now that we've established how they so obviously feel about each other, we can move forward. I've given this a lot of thought over the past few months and I have reached the stunning conclusion that James and Lily are officially the most stubborn, clueless people who ever lived. Therefore, we need a plan." I announced, making the executive decision to take matters into my own hands. With their help of course. I mean really, I've been working on this since last winter. Their prank expertise and knowledge of James couldn't hurt. I think.

"As much as I think that I'm going to regret asking this, a plan for what?" Sirius asked, sounding as though someone (namely him) was going to be seriously injured by my response.

"A plan to rid the world of the color orange, once and for all." I deadpanned. "To get Lily and James together you idiot!"

"Just clarifying! And how do you propose we accomplish this, might I ask?" Sirius asked.

"Accomplish what?" A voice said.

We all must have jumped about a foot into the air at the sound of James' voice as he and Lily stepped through the portrait hole.

"Um...how we're going to survive our N.E.W.T.'s" Sirius covered up.

"OK..." Lily responded. She and James looked at each other, clearly not convinced, though they appeared to silently agree to drop it. "Anyways, we need your help with something. Dumbledore and McGonagall want us to come up with something different to celebrate Halloween, and we need ideas." She said as she and James took the empty seats next to Remus and Peter on the large, red overstuffed couch facing the fireplace. Sirius and I were seated on identical armchairs on either side of the couch, me at the end with Lily and James and him at the end with Remus and Peter.

"That's perfect!" I cried. When I realized they were all staring at me, James and Lily quizzically, the others as if I had just spilled a huge secret, which I suppose that in some small way, I half did, I quickly thought of an excuse. Luckily James and Lily didn't see their reactions. "I mean, it's our last year here, it only seems fitting that we do something special." Lily and James seemed to buy it, and the others visibly relaxed, so I continued. "And it just so happens that I have an absolutely fantastic idea."

"Please, do share." Lily laughed, oblivious to the real reason behind my excitement.

"A Halloween Dance."

"A what?" They all exclaimed in unison.

"A dance. We could dress up after the Halloween Feast, maybe even in costumes, and have a dance. We could make posters, get a band, of course this would only be something for like the third or fourth years and up," I explained.

"Sounds spectacular, but I meant what is a dance?" James inquired, and Sirius looking confused as well.

"It's sort of a muggle thing. It's like a ball in the wizarding world. Like Marlene said, you dress up, and you go with a date or your friends, and you dance," Lily explained. She had probably heard about them from her older sister, or from before she came to Hogwarts.

"Alright, sounds good to me. But no costumes." James said.

"Deal. Now go tell McGonagall. Right now." I told Lily and James.

"Now?" Lily asked.

"Yes. It's not like we'll end up having a better idea." I said.

"Alright, but she's probably teaching a class right now. We can tell her tomorrow morning after breakfast. Besides, it'll give us some time to come up with an actual plan." Lily suggested.

"Alright, fine." I agreed. At least now we had a start to a plan.

 ***Lily's POV***

Later that night, James and I were alternating between homework and making a plan for the dance. I had no idea what time it was, just that it was really late. The others had gone up to bed a long time ago. And to be perfectly honest, at this point, it was mostly joking around and talking about both nothing and everything instead of homework and planning.

"You know, you look exhausted," he told me as I tried to stifle a yawn.

"Yes, well so do you," I shot back, "Anyways, we have good reason to be, we've been here for hours."

"No, it's only-" he checked his watch, "-two o'clock in the morning." He smiled at me. "Yeah, we should probably go to bed."

"Probably," I laughed.

We gathered up our things and headed upstairs. We went over the plan one more time before saying goodnight.

I entered my dorm as quietly as possible when someone turned on the light.

"Well it's about time."

I spun around to see Marlene looking at me with her arms crossed, and Alice next to her in a similar position.

"I have absolutely no idea what in the world you could be talking about," I told them before dumping my things in my trunk and heading into the closet to change. "And where's Carol?" Carol Ridgewood was the other girl in our dormitory, but was no where to be seen.

"Carol is trying to sleep so if you're going to interrogate Lily would you please do it quietly?" Carol's voice came from the direction of her bed.

"Sorry!" Marlene called. "As for you, Ms. Evans, you absolutely do so know what in the world we're talking about, it's two o'clock in the morning for Merlin's sake, the rest of us went to bed nearly three hours ago!"

"So? James and I were planning for the dance that _you_ so eagerly suggested," I told her as I came out and sat on my bed to brush my hair.

"Oh don't play dumb with me missy, you and I both know very well that there's a whole lot more than just head business going on between you two!" Marlene accused me.

"Yes, we're friends as well. Very keen observation, Mars."

Marlene and Alice both scoffed at that.

"Right, Lily. You two are just as much friends as Alice and Frank." Marlene laughed.

"We are not!"

"You are so!" Alice finally spoke up. "For Merlin's sake Lily, face facts, you're madly in love with James and he's madly in love with you, just admit it and let the rest of us move on with our lives before Marlene has a nervous breakdown!"

"He doesn't feel that way about me anymore." I said quietly.

"Yes, yes he does Lily. You just can't see it because you've gotten too close to him, and because of your own feelings." Marlene told me.

"Would you all mind discussing this when the sun is up?" Carol said, clearly annoyed with us. Usually she would love something like this, just not after midnight without some kind of caffeine.

"Gladly," I replied, before putting down my brush and shutting the curtains around my bed. The last thing I saw before closing my eyes through the crack in the curtains was Alice getting into bed and Marlene shaking her head at me. Despite my protests and (maybe) denial, I knew that we weren't done with this.

 ***James' POV***

I was barely in the door when Sirius, Remus, and Peter started to interrogate me. Right after they voiced a few of their (unwelcome) opinions.

"James Charles Potter just where have you been?"

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"We have been worried sick!"

"What do you have to say for yourself?!"

"Your concern is touching, really. But I think that you may be overreacting just a tad," I said as I started to change into my pajamas.

"You've been down there with Evans, _alone_ , for nearly three hours. In the middle of the night. Sounds quite suspicious," Sirius asserted.

"Not suspicious, just purely platonic friends talking."

" _Right_ , 'talking'. And I didn't enchant Slughorn's crystallized pineapple to turn his moustache green." Sirius scoffed.

"We aren't talking about this anymore."

"Oh yes we are," Remus scoffed. "You are not allowed to spend nearly three hours alone, at night, by a fire, with Lily bloody Evans, whom you have been in love with since forever, and say that you were 'just talking'."

"Watch me."

"James, it isn't healthy, nor is it natural, to not talk about these things. Honestly. Peter, help me out here. Peter?" Sirius turned look at Peter's bed, as Remus and I followed suit. He had fallen asleep in the middle of our arguing. The other boys in our dormitory, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Frank Longbottom, had probably been asleep for hours.

"Well, Peter doesn't seem to think that we should talk about this at the moment, and quite frankly, I agree."

"Peter does not get a vote in this, he is asleep." Sirius said.

"Well, I'm not, and I'm going to bed."

"One more thing, and then we'll leave you alone. For now," Remus requested.

"Fine. What is it?" I sighed, knowing that I probably wouldn't like whatever it was.

"Why, after all these years, have you all of a sudden just stopped chasing Evans, and decided to have a, what was it, 'purely platonic' relationship with her, when literally everyone, except perhaps Evans herself, knows that you still obviously have feelings for her?" Sirius asked.

"Because, I have come to realize that having some kind of relationship with Lily is better than not having one at all, even if it isn't the preferable kind. And for now, that's enough. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to get some rest tonight, thanks very much." After that, I climbed into bed and shut the curtains, even though I knew for a fact that this wasn't the last that I would be hearing of this. Not even close.


End file.
